Liability
by Permianera
Summary: AU. Ming-hua and Ghazan do not die in the final battle, but they are going back to prison. However, the White Lotus will not be the ones taking custody of them.
1. Chapter 1

AN: Another AU fic where the members of the Red Lotus get a different ending from the series. (Yes all of them). There will be Mingzan and some Pheer. Unfortunately, like many others I got attached to the season 3 villains. Normally I'm not a shipper but damn it, I liked both Pheer and Mingzan. There will be head canons because we didn't get backstories for Ming hua and Ghazan and we got one sentence for P'li.

Disclaimer: I don't own Legend of Korra

* * *

Ghazan watched as the two teenagers ran from the cave. As soon as they were out of sight, he stopped the cave from collapsing and cooled the lava he had created. When he saw that the firebender arrive to help his brother he knew that something must have happened to Ming-hua. Zaheer would be very angry at him for throwing the battle like that, but he didn't care.

Ghazan ran into the direction he had seen Ming-hua and the firebender run while fighting. Looking around, he saw hole that led down to a pool of water. She had to be down there. He took a deep breath and jumped down, worried about what he might find.

He looked around quickly and saw her body lying next to the pool of water. He ran over and picked up her up. She gave a little groan as he did. Good, she was still alive, though she was barely conscious and soaking wet. He felt for a pulse and it was very rapid. He also noticed that there were lightning scars on her neck.

"Ming-hua, you need to heal yourself." He said urgently. She didn't move.

"Come on," He pleaded and felt himself starting to panic. "Don't leave me."

He eyes slightly opened and she frowned. The water on her glowed, healing her just enough to put her vitals back to normal. Her head then fell back and her eyes closed.

"Ok good." Ghazan said feeling relieved. Her heart rate was back to normal and her breathing was stronger. She was still badly injured but at least he didn't have to worry about her dying. Now he would just have to wait for Zaheer to defeat the avatar and then he could move Ming-hua to a more comfortable place.

He held her close to him, trying his best to keep her warm. He had wanted to do this for so long, but not like this. Not after she had nearly died, their plans had gone awry, and with P'li dead.

He wondered what had happened to P'li. It wasn't like her to get careless. If she had been there when the avatar had been forced into the avatar state this all would have been over quickly. But that didn't matter, she was gone. Zaheer would never be the same again, Ming-hua wouldn't take it well once reality set in, and he himself would miss her. She was after all one of his closest friends.

Suddenly, he felt something hit him in the back of the head and his vision went black.

* * *

"Alright, go get them." Suyin ordered Kuvira and the other metal benders with her. "And check to see if that water bender is still alive."

"Yes ma'am." Kuvira responded and led the group over to the criminals. "She's alive, but she's badly injured. I don't think she'll be too much trouble for us."

"The air ship should have arrived, get them there quickly before either wakes up." Su commanded. "And make sure all precautions are taken in their cells."

* * *

Ming-hua woke up. She could feel that she was lying in a very comfortable bed, though she could hardly enjoy it because her body was in pain. She rolled over and opened her eyes trying to remember what had happened.

Her face flushed as she remembered her last fight with that firebender. That damn kid had won. She had never suspected that he could lightning bend and she didn't understand why he hadn't done it back at Misty Palms Oasis.

She figured that Ghazan must have finished him off. She then cringed and wondered what Ghazan was thinking when he found her nearly dead. He and Zaheer were probably very disappointed that she had lost to that teenager. And why did Ghazan have to beg her to live? Now she was going to have to live with that defeat.

"Do you need help getting up?" A woman's voice startled her.

Ming-hua felt herself go cold and her eyes quickly opened. That voice was vaguely familiar. Despite the pain, she forced herself up using her core strength. Her back hurt from being slammed into the rock by the avatar, but she managed to stabilize herself sitting on the bed. She then noticed that her feet were bound up with a metal contraption and tethered to the floor.

There were four women in the cell with her. One she recognized as the leader of Zaofu, she thought her name was Suyin. She was standing next to a woman who had similar looks and had her arms folded. The two other women stood very close to her on each side looking as though they were ready to restrain her if needed.

Ming-hua quickly looked around for water but there was none. Her mouth was completely dry and as desperate as she was, her saliva was not an option. She was also not a blood bender and even if she had been, there wasn't a full moon. She was outnumbered so physically attacking anyone in the room would be a very bad idea.

"The women next to you are chi blockers." Suyin said firmly. "I suggest that you not try anything."

"Where am I? What happened?" Ming-hua asked glaring at them. She had just noticed that she was wearing different clothes. Light green shirt with dark green pants. Prison clothes. They were a size too big for her though that was not surprising considering how tiny she was.

"You're on an airship, we've taken you and your friends into custody." Suyin responded.

Ming-hua's eyes widened. They had lost. P'li's death, those thirteen years in prison, everything thing that they had worked towards had all been for nothing.

"So you're taking me back to that prison?" Ming-hua tried to keep her voice strong, but it was very noticeably cracking. The White Lotus, though they themselves thought otherwise, had become a cruel organization. Ming-hua had spent over a decade kept on the verge of death. The heat itself was agonizing. In order to keep her alive, every hour, she'd have a sponge shoved into her mouth to hydrate her a little. She couldn't rest against the bars as they were made of iron and she would get severe burns if she had touched them. The cage that they kept her in was completely open giving her no privacy and there was plenty of harassment from the guards over the years. She'd prefer that they'd just execute her. She didn't want to live like that for the rest of her life. It was doubtful that Zaheer would escape again considering that last time no one expected him to one day become air bender.

"I don't want to go back there!" Her voice was getting smaller and she broke eye contact. "I can't do it again. Do you have any idea how awful the White Lotus is!" She knew she was sounding desperate and she hated it.

The woman next to Suyin spoke. "After everything you did, why should we give a damn what happens to you!"

"Lin." Suyin interrupted then looked back at Ming-hua. "Don't worry; I'm not turning you over to the White Lotus. This air ship is on its way to Zaofu."

Ming-hua noticed Lin give Suyin a look.

"When we get there, we'll put you in a maximum security cell for water benders. The air will be dry, but it will be much more comfortable than your last prison. And we'll only have women guarding your cell." Suyin explained. "When the avatar recovers in a few weeks, she will remove your water bending and you'll be moved to a more comfortable cell."

Ming-hua's eyes widened and then she looked at her right shoulder, and then her left shoulder. "How am I supposed to do anything without my water bending?"

"We can get you a caregiver, prosthetics, or whatever you prefer." Suyin continued. Her voice was softening.

Ming-hua frowned. She thought the days of someone helping her out with everything were long gone. Waterbending had given her freedom to live her own life. The thought of it being taken from her was agonizing. It had been years since she had used her legs and feet to do anything for herself. Once she learned to water bend, she solely used that to accommodate and she stopped using any other techniques she had learned to adapt.

"Where are Ghazan and Zaheer?" She suddenly asked.

"Zaheer was taken into custody by the White Lotus. The earth bender is in another cell. I'm sorry, but we can't let you two see each other yet." Suyin replied.

So Ghazan was nearby. Zaheer was going back to a White Lotus prison and they were now going to have to deal with him as an air bender. She did not want to think about what they would have to do to contain him. Then again, she knew he spent most of his previous imprisonment in the spirit world and she had a little bit of resentment towards him for that. His prison time was easy compared to her, Ghazan and P'li's.

"I suggest you don't try anything foolish." Suyin continued her eyes locked on Ming-hua. "If you try to escape or attack anyone, we won't be able to keep you in Zaofu and the White Lotus will take you."

"Can I heal myself?"

"When you get to your cell, we'll let you heal. I'm sorry, but considering how dangerous you are we just can't take any chances." Suyin responded. "For now, just get some rest. Do you need help lying back down?"

"No!" Ming-hua said quickly.

With that, Suyin, Lin and the chi blockers left. Two guards stood outside the cell door.

Ming-hua had to let herself fall back onto the bed. It hurt as she landed but she was not asking anyone for help. She did not trust them and wondered if they really were going to Zaofu.

* * *

Su and Lin walked quietly away from Ming hua's cell. When they were far enough away that no one near the cell would hear them, Lin spoke.

"Are you seriously bringing her and that earth bender back to Zaofu? They nearly killed Korra and several others!"

"Yes Lin I am." Suyin responded a hint of nervousness in her voice. "Zaofu has the facilities to hold both. I'm confident they won't escape."

"I don't get it, why do you even want that responsibility? If they were to escape again, it won't look good for you!" Lin added. "You wanted me to visit her cell with you because you were concerned that she would find water. We were lucky she was still out when we got there."

Su sighed. Luckily, Ming-hua was unconscious when they had found her. Water benders were especially difficult to detain. They had quickly taken precautions, making sure she was completely dry, getting rid of any source of water in the room, and binding up her legs. Still, she was very resourceful and Su had wanted Lin there just in case Ming-hua had found any water. The human body was after all, mostly made of it and Su wasn't sure what lengths she would go to get any.

"The prisons that the White Lotus kept them in were very inhumane. We can do better at Zaofu. There is no point in locking someone up like that for the rest of their life." Su paused. "And even if Korra does remove their bending and they were to go to another White Lotus prison, I don't know if that woman would be safe."

Su had seen many jails and prisons in her travels. She knew how dangerous other inmates and the guards could be.

"You know, she did hold Opal hostage and threatened with one of her icicles." Lin reminded raising her eye brow.

"I know." Su said shortly. "Opal won't have any contact with her."

"Are you going to try to bring Zaheer to Zaofu?" Lin was slightly sarcastic.

"Zaheer is way too dangerous for our prisons, even without his air bending." Su responded. "Besides, the White Lotus already have him, they won't give him up." Su thought for a moment. "We wouldn't have been able to imprison the combustion bender humanely either." She sighed and looked away from Lin.

"You don't feel guilty about that do you?" Lin asked.

"I'd rather her than you, but I don't like killing people." Su said sadly. "People don't just join anarchist groups without reason. The Earth Kingdom has had severe problems and many of them were the fault of Queen Hou-ting."

Lin looked at her resigned. "I hope you know what you're doing."

* * *

AN: I figured of all the characters, Suyin is the most likely to disapprove of the prisons they were held in. In fact, if any had made a heel face turn in the series, I figured that they would have ended up in Zaofu because Su lets former criminals live there.

As far as the prison outfits, they look the same as the ones the prisoners wore at the boiling rock, only in Earth Kingdom colors.

I'm sending them to prison first so I can have other Avatar characters interact with them. They won't be there the entire fic.

Fixed all the Ming-hua name mistakes in this chapter and wow this needs to be edited and rewritten.


	2. Chapter 2

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Legend of Korra.

* * *

Ming hua sat in her cell. Earlier, right before she was moved from the air ship, she was unknowingly sedated. Before the air ship had landed, she was given a drink of water and she was so thirsty that she didn't even think that something could have been added to it. On her way to her cell, she was escorted by several guards; one had her hand on the back of her neck. She thought the precautions were completely unnecessary. She hadn't yet healed herself, she had no water, and she felt like she could have fallen asleep while standing. She was surprised that she even made it to her cell and she fell asleep almost as soon as she had arrived.

The prison cell wasn't too bad. The air was dry and a bit cold, but it was much better than the volcano prison. Anything was better than the volcano prison. She was given a cup full of water with a straw to drink. There were two doors to her cell, the outer one was the bars you would traditionally see on a jail cell and the inner was a solid sliding door if she wanted privacy. The bed was more comfortable than she would have thought.

The walls were boring. They were just pure platinum. She wondered how long it would take before she got sick of looking at them.

Ming hua got up off her bed walked to a small shelf in her room that contained three books titled "The Founding of Omashu." (_Who cared_), a picture book with various photos of earth kingdom scenery (boring) and "The Life Story of Avatar Aang." She frowned at the last one. She hated avatars, why would she have any interest in that? She instead made up her own story about how Avatar Aang had several secret affairs around the world as a way to keep the air nomad culture alive, and that was where the air benders from harmonic convergence came from. Putting more thought into this story, she realized that that made Avatar Aang Zaheer's father and in a strange way, the current Avatar his father. She quickly brushed the thought out of her head because it was too weird. Besides, there was one huge flaw, the new air benders would have gotten their air bending at birth, not at harmonic convergence.

There was also a Pai Sho board on the bottom shelf. Why was that there? This was a single person cell, who would anyone play the game with? Pai Sho was boring anyway. She remembered when Zaheer and P'li would play the game and it would take hours. Most of their game time was spent just staring at the board. She had no patience for it.

She suddenly remembered P'li and that she was now gone. She couldn't believe that her friend had been defeated nor could she think of what had happened. P'li wasn't one to get careless. Another thought came to her. Maybe Zaheer was wrong? Maybe he had only thought she had died and she was actually still at Laghima's peak wondering where the hell they were.

The doors to her cell opened and two guards walked in. Two more guards waited outside her cell.

"These should fit you better," One of the guards sat a new set of clothes on her bed. "This is the smallest size we have."

Ming hua just glared at them. She wasn't in the mood for dealing with anyone.

"Do you need help getting those on?" The guard asked not looking happy.

"If I needed your help I would ask." Ming hua said coldly.

"Ok whatever." The guard replied rolling her eyes. The two guards left and closed both doors.

Ming hua looked at the new set of clothes. It had been a very long time since she had changed her clothes without her water arms. But she was not going to have someone help her with every damn thing in her life. It was difficult, especially with still being sore, but she managed it.

* * *

_1 week later_

Su was exasperated. She had just left Republic City and was on her way back to Zaofu. Earlier she had spoken to both Tonraq and Tenzin and they were not happy.

She remembered bits of the conversation.

_"How can you just keep those two in your custody? That's a resort! Not a prison!" Tonraq yelled. "Those two nearly killed my daughter!"_

_ "I understand how angry you are with what they did to Korra. But the solution to this is not to lock them for the rest of their lives in inhumane conditions " Su responded. "That waterbender was emaciated. We have better ways in Zaofu and they will not be a danger to anyone."_

_ "I don't care! What they did was inhumane! Those two deserve it!" Tonraq spat. His face was red with anger. "That combustion bender should be lucky that she's dead!"_

_ Su frowned. She completely understood how he felt. Korra was still in very bad shape and it looked like her recovery was going to take a very long time._

_ "Su, they put the entire air nation in danger, my children included. My wife had a baby with her!" Tenzin reminded. _

_ "Tenzin, doesn't air nomad culture abhor violence?" Su raised her eyebrow at him._

_ "That's not violence!" Tenzin shot back but sounded very unsure. "As soon as Korra recovers, we'll get them out of their White Lotus prisons and remove their bending. They can be moved to another prison."_

_ "Listen, I've been in many prisons in my lifetime. " Su began. "The earthbender would probably do fine, but the waterbender, she won't stand a chance without her waterbending." _

_ "If she didn't want to go to prison, she shouldn't have joined a violent anarchist group." Tonraq concluded. _

_ "You don't know either of their reasons for joining." Su replied. _

_ "Can we at least interrogate them again?" Tenzin asked. "Give them the option to speak and stay in Zaofu, or go back to their White Lotus prisons."_

_ "If they choose to remain silent, then I would have to turn them over to the White Lotus." Su responded. "And they didn't break after thirteen years, what makes you think they will now?"_

_ "They are given a more comfortable prison, and then are told they will have to go back to their old prisons. Surely that would give them the incentive?" Tenzin pointed out._

_ "No I'm not doing that." Su replied. "I don't believe in torture." She paused and her eyes narrowed. " And if any member of the White Lotus sets foot in Zaofu's prison without my permission I will consider it an act of aggression."_

Su sat back hoping that she wasn't making a big mistake. She had lost sleep over the fear that those two would find a way to escape, or worse, seriously injure someone else at the prison. She also knew that they weren't fond of world leaders and that if they did get out, her family could be in danger. Anytime someone expressed concerns about Zaofu's ability to keep them locked up put more doubt in her head. But with the way they had both reacted at the thought of going back to their old prisons, she just couldn't give up. _Zaofu's prisons are very secure. _She kept telling herself.

She had spoken to a few of the guards that stood outside their cells and learned that the waterbender was very quiet and sulked most of the day. Any attempt to talk to her was met with sarcastic remarks. The earthbender on the other hand was very friendly, which both relieved and worried her. She hoped that he wouldn't be able to talk anyone into letting him out. That was one of the many reasons she could never keep Zaheer in Zaofu.

* * *

_2 weeks later_

Ghazan, despite hating the fact that he was now back at prison, had to admit that this one wasn't the worst place to be locked up. The food was good, the guards weren't half bad, and he was allowed to interact with other inmates. The place was built to house earth benders, especially metal benders. There was no way he was escaping. It made him a bit angry that the White Lotus couldn't provide the similar accommodations and instead, chose the most agonizing methods possible. Sitting in the hot sun day after day was torturous, though he had to admit, Ming hua and P'li had it much worse.

He was allowed out in the prison yard with three guards escorting him. The first time he was out, he looked to see if there would be a way to escape. But the walls were too high and everything was made of platinum. He wouldn't leave without Ming hua anyway, and they were probably not going to let her outside of her cell block until she was no longer a waterbender.

He did worry about Ming hua. They were both cut off from their bending and could soon permanently lose it. As much as it hurt him to lose his, he worried more about her. He had hoped that she wasn't sitting helplessly in her cell, unable to do anything. He was assured that she would have help with whatever she needed, but he still worried. He knew she would hate having others care for her.

Bolin came to visit him. He first showed up apologizing for being the reason Ghazan was back in prison and asked if he could help with his lava bending. Bolin explained that he had destroyed an entire building while practicing, which Ghazan found very amusing. So he had been giving Bolin lava bending tips. The kid was the only other lava bender that he knew of so he didn't mind helping him out and it did give him something to do. He was still spending most of the day in his cell and it was very boring. In return, Bolin would bring items that Ghazan wanted.

"It's a shame that we can't go outside and practice." Bolin said on one of his visits.

Ghazan sighed. "They're not going to let me get anywhere near earth until after your friend gets better. But then, what would be the point."

Bolin was silent.

"Hey could you do me a favor?" Ghazan asked.

"Uh sure." Bolin responded.

"Can you check on Ming hua for me and maybe talk to her for a little bit?" Ghazan requested. "I don't think that there are any other water benders in this prison and she isn't going to get any visitors."

Bolin gulped. "I can do that, but… she kind of scares me."

"Yeah she's a little intimidating at first, but she's easy to figure out." Ghazan laughed.

"If you say so." Bolin replied still not sure.

* * *

AN: Sorry if that was a little slow. Also, please don't hate Tenzin or Tonraq, they have every right to be pissed at any members of the Red Lotus. It had only been a week since fighting Zaheer and Korra had almost died. It would be ridiculous if either of these characters were just okay or indifferent with any members of the Red Lotus not going back to their former prisons. As much as I like the RL, what they did in the last few episodes was not okay. (I'll be writing a few backstories to explain why they joined, but that does not excuse the actions, which is why they are going to spend some time in prison.)

And Ming hua and Ghazan will talk to each other probably in two chapters.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: Okay I stressed over this one to get characterization down. And I watched several scenes in book three to figure out these character's personalities. (And what little we got to see of them) And this got rewritten several times. I'll probably read this again and give it more edits. I will happily take any critique.

* * *

The nights were cold and the blanket was not enough to keep her warm. Ming hua couldn't believe that was her biggest problem. While the cold was much better than the heat she had experienced the past thirteen years, it was still uncomfortable. She found herself tossing and turning all night trying to fall asleep.

The walls were beginning to drive her nuts with how plain they were and she was starting to get bored. The first two weeks were nice to have to herself; she wasn't sure when the last time was that she slept without others in the same room or being surrounded by guards. Yes there were guards outside of her current cell, but she could keep the door closed and not have to see them. Now, she was keeping the solid door open more often so she could at least eaves drop on their conversations. It wasn't much but it gave her something to do.

She was surprised one day when one of the guards knocked on the door and announced that she had a visitor.

"Can we open?" The guard asked.

"Uh sure." Ming hua said. A visitor could be interesting. Though there was a possibility that it was just an interrogation.

When the door opened, she was a bit caught off guard to see the earthbender that Ghazan had fought standing on the other side. She remembered when that one comment from him had made the day at Ba Sing Sei awkward and worse, he was that firebender's brother. She thought that his name might be Bolin.

"We'll be down the hall watching." The guards then walked off. "No reaching through the bars."

Ming hua glared at the teenager wondering if he was there to gloat. "What do you want?" She demanded coldly and was very happy to see him shrink up a little.

"Um…" Bolin began and looked as though he were about to start shaking. "Ghazan wanted to know how you were doing."

Ming hua quickly looked away and felt her face redden. "Tell him I'm doing fine." She couldn't help but wonder how or why Ghazan would be talking to this kid.

"Ok, I will tell him that next time I see him." Bolin replied awkwardly.

"Are you two friends?" Ming hua looked at Bolin again with the same icy glare. It wouldn't have surprised her; Ghazan could make friends with anybody.

"Yeah kind of." Bolin responded. "He gives me tips for lavabending, and I bring him things, and we'll talk."

"Oh so he's helping our enemies now." Ming hua said.

"Well kind of yeah." Bolin answered lamely.

There was silence. Ming hua just kept staring at Bolin. She enjoyed watching him break eye contact anytime he tried to look at her.

"How did you lose your arms?" He suddenly blurted out and then his face fell, like he regretted asking the question.

Ming hua felt herself cringe. Of course he was going to ask that. Everyone asked her that question. "I didn't, I never had them."

"Oh so you were born without them?" Bolin said with a hint of surprise in his voice.

"Yes, isn't that what I just said? Sorry it's not some exciting story." Ming hua rolled her eyes. Most people assumed that she had lost both her arms in battle.

"Oh that's okay; it didn't have to be exciting." Bolin said sounding very uncomfortable. He was now looking at the floor. "Maybe I should head out." Bolin started to back up.

Ming hua felt her face soften. "You're leaving already?"

"I uh thought you wanted me to go." Bolin stopped. "You don't seem very happy to see me."

"Well you are part of the reason that I'm back in prison." Ming hua pointed out. "But it is very boring here and talking to you is better than no one."

"Ok I guess I'll stay." Bolin said. He looked more like he was afraid to leave. "And yeah, sorry you're back in prison; I knew you hated it before."

"Why are you apologizing? We would have killed you if we had to."

"I really don't know." Bolin looked down at the ground.

There was another awkward silence. Ming hua was not exactly sure what she was supposed to say to Bolin. She was hoping that he wouldn't bring up the day she and her friends had failed to kill the avatar and she was sure he knew how her last fight with his brother had ended. It made her angry any time she remembered it. One stupid move and she was completely defeated and nearly dead, and from a damn teenager.

"So this place isn't too bad is it?" Bolin asked in an attempt to end the silence.

"It's prison." Ming hua responded a little startled from having her thoughts broken. "There's not much to do but it's much better than that volcano."

"Yeah…" Bolin said. "Yours was probably the worst wasn't it?"

"I don't know, P'li's was pretty bad too." Ming hua responded cringing. "She was kept chained up to the wall in the north pole far underground. I don't know how she didn't freeze to death. After we got her out, she was always looking for ways to be warm." She remembered being angry when she saw P'li's prison. It was the exact opposite of hers and the cold was too much for even her to handle. She did not know how P'li didn't lose her mind from being chained up with metal touching her skin for those thirteen years, but P'li had been in chains through most of her life. If Zaheer had seen how she was kept, he probably would have killed Zuko, Tonraq, and those other two kids at the North Pole that night.

"P'li?" Bolin asked. "Oh the combustion bender."

"I didn't see Ghazan or Zaheer's prison so I'm not sure how they compare. I've only heard what they were like. But Zaheer spent most of his time in the spirit world so I think he had it the best out of all of us." Ming hua continued.

"Yeah that doesn't sound very fair. I mean, he wasn't really in prison if he could just hang out in the spirit world." Bolin agreed.

"Yeah exactly."

They both heard footsteps down the hall and Bolin turned to look turned to look.

"Looks like the guards are coming back and I have to leave. Do you need me to bring you anything?" He paused and his eyes widened. "Except for water, I can't bring you any water."

Ming hua was about to say no but then she thought of something and this was her only chance to get it. "A warmer blanket, it's freezing down here at night and this one isn't any good." She kicked the blanket on her bed that was supplied by the prison.

"Okay I can get you that." Bolin agreed. "I'll see you in a few days then." He began to walk away.

"Wait." Ming hua ordered. There was one last thing she had to know. She saw Bolin stop and she turned her head to look away from him.

"Is P'li really dead?"

Bolin breathed heavily. "From what I heard, there is no way that she could have survived. I'm sorry." He voice was very soft.

"What happened?" Ming hua asked.

Bolin cringed "I don't think you'd want to know that."

"No, I need to know or I'll never accept it." Ming hua demanded turning her head to face him. She would spend part of her day making up scenarios in her head where P'li would show up to break her and Ghazan out of the prison and then they would go search for Zaheer's.

Bolin sighed. "She was fighting Lin and Su. And she was about to kill Lin with one of her combustion blasts, but right as she was firing it off, Su threw her armor over her head…"

Ming hua suddenly turned her whole body away from him, threw her legs up onto the bed and buried her face into her knees. The mental image of it was just too much.

"I'm really sorry." Bolin apologized.

"We're done for today." Ming hua said angrily not turning to look at him. The last thing she needed was for that kid to see her get emotional.

"Okay I'll see you in a few days."

* * *

Ming hua hadn't slept well that night. Learning how P'li's life had ended had been painful. All that hell she had gone through to learn combustion bending only to be killed by it.

_How could she have been so careless? _She thought. _What the hell was Zaheer doing when that had happened? Why weren't she and Ghazan there?_

She wanted to hate Suyin, but the woman had kept her away from the White Lotus, very possibly at her own expense. She felt that she at least had to be grateful.

Although she enjoyed her time alone at first, she was getting bored and sick of her cell. Sometimes she was taken down the hall to the common area for a change of scenery, but there were no other water benders in her cell block. Not that she actually wanted to talk to anyone; the only people she'd want to share a cell block with were Ghazan, P'li and Zaheer. She couldn't believe that she was actually missing those damn Guru Laghima quotes.

Last night was very cold and she wondered when Bolin would come back with that blanket. She didn't hate the earth bending kid but he was still that damn lightning bender's brother. Earlier, she had heard the guards talking about how he had been getting a lot of praise for taking her down and was now regarded as a hero. They talked as though she couldn't hear them, even though the solid door to her cell was open. It made her angrier at the kid. At least with Bolin, she could find out what Ghazan was up to.

_Damn it Ghazan! _She thought suddenly getting angry. _2 out of 3? Really?_ Then of course, Zaheer had to tell them to gag the two kids so that no one could ask further questions. Now she was stuck wondering which two out of three were correct. She knew he had an older sister but she wasn't sure if she raised him. Mustache at ten? That couldn't be right.

Unspoken attraction? She felt her face get red. Before their imprisonment, Ghazan never had trouble getting women. He was good looking and friendly. She on the other hand did not have such luck. Most men walked off once they realized that she didn't have arms and others would approach her and ask very personal questions. The worst were gross older men who were looking for young girls who they assumed to be desperate.

She liked being around Ghazan and they both worked well together. She had a crush on him when they first met but figured he'd never be into her. Still, he was always friendly towards her and they had become very close over time.

She wanted to talk to him and demand answers, but that probably wouldn't happen for a long time. For now she'd just have to make up her own scenarios of what could possibly happen if she had asked him.

Two days later, Bolin finally visited her again. She was able to hear the guards talking through the door.

"You here to visit again?"

"Yes." Bolin she heard Bolin respond.

"What's that." The other guard asked.

"Oh it's for her, she asked me to bring her one."

"I have to check it first."

A few seconds later the guards knocked on the door. "Hey, your friend is here again, can we open?"

"Yeah." Ming hua.

The guard opened the door. "How do you want to take this?" She held the blanket forward.

Ming hua walked to the door. "Put it over my shoulder." She instructed.

The guard did just that. Ming hua tilted her head to the side to hold the blanked between her chin and her shoulder. She walked back to her bed and dropped the blanket on top.

The other guard looked at Bolin. "You have an hour." The guards walked down the hall.

Ming hua looked at the blanket and cringed a little. "This has a rainbow and stars on it."

"Yeah, isn't it cool?" Bolin smiled.

"Um, yeah I guess it is." Ming hua looked back at the blanket. She thought the design was hideous, but it was a blanket, it would work. And he did go out of his way to bring it for her so she wasn't going to complain.

"So how are you?" Bolin asked.

"Bored." She responded, and sat on her bed. "How is Ghazan?"

"I don't know, I haven't seen him yet today." Bolin replied. "But he's been doing well. He talks to a lot of people."

"Of course he does."

"So uh." Bolin looked as though he were trying to find something to say. "Do you still make up stories about the guards here."

"Yes I do." Ming hua replied. "The one with short hair wants to become a professional athlete, and the one with longer hair wants to travel the world sampling every flavor of tea."

"Oh make up a story about me!" Bolin said excitedly.

"You really want me to do that?" Ming hua raised her eye brows. Her stories could get very mean, depending on her mood.

"Yeah go ahead," Bolin replied.

"Ok fine, you once dated the avatar, but she left you for your annoying brother, ever since then you haven't had any other girlfriends and you've been lonely."

Bolin's eyes widened. "Well you got the part about dating the avatar right, and about her leaving me for my brother. But I have dated since then. Although, one was the princess from the Northern Water Tribe, and she was very possessive and much scarier than you, and there was my co-star, but she didn't really want to date me, until I saved the president from being captured. But nothing ever came of that relationship."

Ming hua just kind of blinked. She remembered the two teenagers from the North Pole that she easily over powered when getting P'li out of her prison. She knew they were Unalaq's kids and she couldn't believe that this kid had dated one of them.

"I actually have a girlfriend right now," Bolin continued. "Come to think of it, she's the girl you held hostage at the Air Temple."

Ming hua frowned. "I bet she's thrilled that you have been visiting me."

Bolin's face dropped. "Well, she's been off with the air nomads and I haven't had contact with her in a while, so she doesn't know yet."

Ming hua just looked at him. "She's not going to want you to come here when she finds out."

Bolin looked to be scrambling for something to say and Ming hua wondered if she was really that intimidating. He finally spoke "Oh don't worry about that, once she sees what a nice person you really are, I'm sure she won't care too much."

Ming hua gave a look that said 'really?'

Bolin sighed. "Okay you're right, she probably won't be happy." Bolin thought for a moment. "But she's an air nomad and I think they are supposed to forgive for that sort of thing. She's Suyin's daughter so after her mom-"

"What! That was her daughter!" Ming hua eyes widened and that was the first time Bolin had ever seen her look scared. "Well that's just wonderful."

Bolin put his hand on his forehead. "Don't worry, I think Su already knows."

Ming hua just groaned. "Of all the air nomads I could have chosen, why did it have to be that one?"

"Don't worry about it, I'll tell her you didn't mean to grab her and that you were actually going for someone else." Bolin looked as though he knew he sounded entirely unconvincing.

"You know that's not going to work?"

Bolin sighed "Yeah you're right. But if they do get angry and send you back to your last prison, I'll break you out."

"I don't believe you. I highly doubt you could break into a White Lotus prison, and do you know how much trouble you'd be in if you tried? And don't remind me that I could go back there."

"I'm so sorry, I'm just trying to be nice, but you are just so scary and I just kind of say stuff." Bolin hung his head.

"Why are you so afraid of me? I can't get to you and even if I could there's not much I can do without water." Ming hua asked.

Bolin gulped. "You have this look that you give, and I'm reminded of what you can do with water. And I don't know, the way you snap sometimes…"

Ming hua just groaned. Part of her was happy that she could still intimidate someone, and the other part was annoyed, both at herself and Bolin.

"Hey uh you ever make up a story about Korra… that's the avatar's name." Bolin tried to change the subject.

"I know the avatar's name." Ming hua growled. "But she left your brother after realizing that he was a very bad lover and ran off with that other friend of yours, the girl she was riding on the polar dog with at Misty Palms Oasis."

"Asami?" Bolin's eyes widened. "That would be interesting. But she and my brother are no longer dating, you see, before my brother dated Korra, he was dating Asami, but then he left Asami for Korra, and they dated for six months, broke up and I think he started to date Asami again, but Korra lost her memory and forgot that they had broken up so my brother kissed her and didn't tell her what had happened… and you probably don't care about any of this."

Ming hua blinked at him. That was far better than anything she could have come up with. "Your brother sounds like a real winner." Ming hua finally said rolling her eyes.

They were both quiet again.

"Do you want me to go now?" Bolin asked.

"Why would you leave? There's still time left." Ming hua was a bit annoyed. "What happened with your last fight with Ghazan? I thought he had killed you and your brother. And how did we get caught?"

"Oh, well he was actually winning, and then my brother came back. And almost immediately he said that he was never going back to prison and started collapsing the mountain around us. I think he was trying to fake his death." Bolin explained. "Then the metal clan went to find your bodies but they found him with you and knocked him out. Luckily for them he was completely distracted."

"So he just let you two go?" Ming hua growled.

"Well, I think he was worried about you." Bolin said.

Ming hua looked away and felt her face redden.

The two talked for the rest of the hour. Ming hua wanted to know what was going on in the world, especially in the Earth Kingdom. Bolin told her that the Earth Kingdom was still in chaos, that they were looking at making the Earth Queen's great nephew the new monarch but he wasn't exactly suited for the role, and that Korra was still recovering. Ming hua tried her best not to show that she was happy that the avatar's condition had not improved or that the Earth Kingdom was still in a state of anarchy. But she couldn't help but smile a little bit when those facts were mentioned.

Towards the end, Ming hua said that she was getting bored sitting in her cell day after day.

"Do you have any family that we could contact and maybe they could visit you?" Bolin asked.

Ming hua gave him an icy glare. "You're getting too personal."

"Oh sorry." He apologized. They heard foots steps down the hall. "I'm getting kicked out of here soon."

"Ok." She groaned. The she mumbled. "Thanks for the blanket."

"Hey no problem, but come to think of it, I think the price sticker is still on it somewhere." Bolin replied.

"It's new?" Ming hua responded looking back down at the blanket.

"Yeah, my friend Varrick recommended that brand, it should keep you warm." Bolin explained. "Do you need anything else?"

Ming hua was quiet and then replied. "Utensils. They never give me any. And uh, make sure they are plain."

Bolin looked at her confused. "Okay, I'll bring those next time."

* * *

Bolin had made his way to Ghazan's cell after visiting Ming hua. Ghazan was much too eager to know how his friend was handling everything. He did feel bad that she wasn't able to use her water bending and had he been more careful, they would not have been back in prison.

"How is she?" Ghazan asked before Bolin could say anything.

Bolin cringed. "Well, one minute, the conversation is going great, and then I end up saying something that upsets her. And she still scares me. But I think she's doing fine, all things considered."

"I wouldn't ask her anything about her life." Ghazan suggested. "She's had a lot happen that she doesn't like to talk about."

Bolin's face dropped. "Too late, I asked if she had any family. And she wasn't too happy."

Ghazan's eyes widened knowing that would not have gone over well with her. "Yeah, that's a very sensitive topic. I also wouldn't ask much about her time in her last prison."

"Ok got it." Bolin said. "No family questions and no questions about prison." He paused.

"Is she being treated well?" Ghazan asked. That was his biggest concern. He knew her personality could be a bit much for many people.

"I think so, she usually just says that she's bored." Bolin replied. "Though I not sure if the guards like her that much."

"Yeah that figures." Ghazan sighed.

"By the way, why did you join the Red Lotus? You don't seem the type." Bolin asked.

Ghazan looked at him. "Zaheer, P'li, and Ming hua got me out of prison when I was on death row and at first I figured I owed him, but later when I learned what the Red Lotus was trying to accomplish, I found that I agreed with their goals."

Bolin nearly jumped. "What! You were on death row!"

"Relax; all I did was assault one of the guards who was trying to arrest a family that couldn't pay the taxes. They had a sick kid." Ghazan said sounding way to calm. "Shortly after they arrested me they found out I could lava bend and tried to conscript me into their military. They told me that they would drop all charges if I joined. I told them no. But that is probably the reason I lived long enough for Zaheer, P'li and Ming hua to get to me."

"Wait, you could get the death penalty just for attacking a cop?" Bolin asked in disbelief. "That sounds a bit harsh."

"Yes, at least in Ba Sing Sei you could." Ghazan confirmed. "The cops were not there for the people in the outer rings, but to make sure no rebellions broke out. And many did, though most who participated in them died."

Bolin just looked at him.

"Don't get me wrong, I didn't have a clean record or anything, you'd be lucky to find anyone in the outer ring that did. My sister ran the gang I was in and I did spend some time in jail." Ghazan said.

Bolin was quiet as though he was taking everything in. "You know, my brother and I lost our parents when we were young, and we stole things too. Though it was mostly my brother, I just kept watch. We also ran a few scams."

"Really?" Ghazan looked a little surprised. "I never would have thought you'd be the type."

"Yeah, but it was in Republic City, you could attack the cops and only spend a few days in jail." Bolin said. "My brother actually is a cop now."

"That's a strange job for him to choose." Ghazan commented.

"I guess." Bolin replied not sure what to think.

"So how is your lava bending?" Ghazan changed the subject.

"Well I haven't destroyed anything this past week. " Bolin began, "Except for vegetation."

"You know, she can take smaller pieces of earth and spin it around very fast to make lava. It's less destructive. But only do it if you have good control or else you'll burn yourself."

"I'll try that." Bolin said.

AN: lots of dialogue in this chapter. And Ghazan was the hardest for me to come up with a backstory because he looked like someone who was always on the wrong side of the law. This isn't the full thing. I'll have a few flash backs later.


	4. Chapter 4

AN: This chapter was hard to write and it got several rewrites.

* * *

Suyin stood outside of Ghazan's cell. Korra was back in the South Pole and was showing very little signs of recovery and that it could be a very long time before she would be back in Zaofu. Every day Su was getting asked about the Red Lotus prisoners. Lin was by far the worst, suggesting that they both had had enough time to figure out a way to escape and that the last thing that anyone wanted was to deal with them again.

She had gone to see all four prisons just to see why the White Lotus would be concerned with Zaofu's ability to keep the two detained. Prior, she had only heard about them, and just from what Tenzin had told her, she thought the prisons sounded too extreme. When she actually saw all four prisons, she was horrified. She was only in Ming hua and P'li's prisons for about ten minutes before she could no longer handle the extreme temperatures. After seeing how they had lived for the past thirteen years she figured she could at least see how they were handling their new prisons.

"So how is your stay here?" She asked the earth bender.

"Not bad." Ghazan said. "Best prison I've ever been in."

"Are you being treated well?" Suyin continued.

"I can't complain." Ghazan responded. "But I would like to talk to Ming hua soon. Just to see how she's doing."

"We weren't going to let you two see each other until after Korra visited." Suyin began. "But we may be able to arrange something. It will have to be behind a glass wall and your conversation will have to be monitored."

"It's better than nothing." Ghazan agreed.

* * *

The earth bender seemed to be doing fine. Bolin had said that he was very friendly, and Suyin figured she wouldn't have to worry too much about him. Though she did worry that he might be manipulative, but he seemed very laid back. Many of the guards also liked him. She of course would never trust him.

She wondered if there had been anything going on between him and Ming hua. After he had regained consciousness in the air ship and had been informed that their bending would be removed, he offered to easily give his up if Ming hua could keep hers. She understood why, but there was no way they could let Ming hua keep her water bending without having to keep her in the maximum security section indefinitely.

Suyin sighed. She did have very mixed feelings about having Ming hua's waterbending removed. Her own mother after all was blind and used her earthbending to compensate. Had her mother lost her bending, life would have been much more difficult for her, though Su knew very well that she would find a way to adapt. Now someone who did use their water bending to compensate for their disability was going to have it removed. But it couldn't be helped; Su knew what Ming hua was capable of. Had her mother been a dangerous criminal, there would have been no justification to let her keep her earthbending. The Red Lotus was out to kill world leaders and that may include her and her family. While they could still kill without their bending, it would be much more difficult.

Suyin was also not happy that Bolin had told both Ghazan and Ming hua that she had been the one to kill their friend. The last thing she needed was for either of them to have any motivation to kill her had they ever managed to escape.

The cell door was opened and the waterbender immediately shot her a look. Suyin knew it was meant to say "stay away." A sort of defense mechanism.

She noticed that the cell had gotten quite colorful. She saw a blanket that looked like something Opal would have loved as a child, a multi colored folding chair, a floor mat that was also multi colored and looked to have various animals on it. Suyin knew that Bolin had been bringing her, and she made a mental note to suggest to Opal that if she ever married Bolin, that she do all the decorating.

Suyin then focused on the water bender. "Ming hua," She began keeping her voice strong yet calm. "How is your stay here?" Bolin had described her as scary at first but mellows out with time. Su thought she was intimidating, and was a little impressed that she still managed to have such a presence.

Ming hua breathed. "It's a prison, not much to say. I'm sick of looking at these walls."

"Are you getting the help that you need?" Suyin continued.

"I don't need any help; I can do things just fine." Ming hua sounded annoyed.

"Well good." Suyin responded and was a little curious at how she was managing. "Are you being treated alright?"

"Everyone leaves me alone, so it's fine." She responded. "I want more water to drink though."

"I can give you a little more." Suyin agreed. "When Korra recovers and removes your water bending, we can move you into another part of the prison and you'll then be able to have as much as you want."

"When is that going to happen?" Ming hua's stare suddenly became much more intense. Suyin thought she saw her backing away.

"Not for a while, her recovery is going to take longer than we thought. The poison really did a lot of damage to her."

"Good." Ming hua gave a smug smile.

Suyin's eyes narrowed and she felt herself becoming angry. "I do know that you took my daughter Opal hostage at the air temple. You also put several of my friends in danger in an attack that you and your friends instigated." She paused and then said "I didn't have to take you into custody. And do you how hard it was to convince the White Lotus to let you and your friend stay here?"

She saw Ming hua shrink back and look away. Good, she had broken her a bit. Suyin felt bad for using that tactic, but she was not going to let that woman smile about hurting one of her friends.

"Then why did you bring me here?" Ming hua demanded.

"I don't agree with many of the White Lotus's methods, and what they did to you and your friends was inhumane." Suyin began. "You did many terrible things, but you didn't deserve that." Suyin paused. "And understand that there are not many out there who would agree. In most other prisons, you would not be safe without your waterbending and the staff would not care."

Ming hua looked away again and was quiet.

"It is unfortunate, you're one of the best waterbenders in the world, and you're probably better than Katara was at your age." Suyin began. "It's a real shame that you chose this path."

Ming hua cringed. "You know nothing about that! I didn't have much of a choice!"

"And I'm sorry for whatever happened." Suyin's voice softened. "But you have proven yourself too dangerous and we can't take any unnecessary risks with you. Every day, members from the White Lotus ask if you and your friends are secured. They will find any reason that they can to take custody of you."

Ming hua looked as though she wanted to say something, but was obviously flustered.

"Is there anything we can do to make your time here easier?" Suyin asked.

"Let me out." Ming hua smirked.

Suyin gave her a look.

"Well I can't stand being in here anymore." Ming hua continued. She stood up, walked over to her chair, stepped on the seat, and sat on top of the backrest. "Yeah it's better than my last one, and there is more to do, but it is still boring."

"I understand, and we are trying to figure things out." Suyin said sympathetically. "We are going to let you talk to your friend in a few days. Just know that your conversation will be monitored. We may even let you go into the prison yard in time, of course, you will have several escorts."

"Fine by me." Ming hua rolled her eyes.

"We also might let you got outside into the prison yard in a few days." Suyin continued. "You will have escorts and if you try anything, we'll have to bring you back in."

"Am I a child now?" Ming hua frowned.

"It's for everyone else's safety. You are a very powerful waterbender." Suyin replied trying to flatter her a little. It seemed to work as Ming hua did give another smug smile. "Now is there anything you need?"

"I need slip on shoes, I can't get those on." Ming hua looked over at the shoes the prison had provided her. "I'd ask Bolin, but I'm really afraid of what he would bring me."

"We'll get those for you." Suyin realized that she would have too much difficulty tying the shoes that the prison provided. She also agreed that Bolin would not be the best person to pick out a pair and could only imagine what multicolored mess he would bring.

* * *

A few days later, Ming hua was escorted to the room where she would be allowed to speak to Ghazan. There was so much that she wanted to talk to him about but mostly she wanted answers. She was finally out of that cell block and the air wasn't so dry.

She arrived at the room first. There was a thick glass window that would separate them but she was assured that she would be able to hear him. She wondered how she looked. She was only allowed damp rags for bathing and she needed some help from an aid. And of course, there had to be four guards in the room because a civilian was in her cell and water use was required. The care giver only removed clothing where she was washing and she had towels covering her, but it was still uncomfortable. In order to clean her hair, a dry shampoo was used. Powder was put in her hair to get the oils out and was brushed out after. She was allowed to refuse, but she never did because she did not want to go years without washing ever again.

Ming hua did wish she had a mirror and figured she would have to ask Bolin for one. She hated asking him to bring her things because she couldn't exactly give him anything in return. However, not having most of the stuff he brought her would have made her cell unbearable. Even those awful colors were better to look at than platinum. She made a note to herself to ask for a small mirror or Bolin would probably bring something big and fancy with some obnoxious design. The prison staff might give her a mirror, but she was only allowed to ask for necessities and she wasn't sure if that counted.

Ghazan entered the room on his side and she couldn't help but smile. He sat down across from her.

"Hey." He said smiling back.

"Hey." She replied.

"How are you doing?" He asked.

"Fine." She said. "How are you doing?"

"Good, this sure beats my last prison."

"Indeed it does." Ming hua replied. She was starting to find it a bit amusing that the only thing she could say about Zaofu's prison was that it was better than the White Lotus prison. Anything was better than that prison.

They were silent.

"How did we get captured?" Ming hua finally asked, her voice getting lower. "What were you doing?"

Ghazan sighed. "I didn't expect us to lose. Zaheer said that the poison should have killed the avatar. And I figured that I should take care of you while we waited for him to come find us. But he never did and I guess I was too focused on you that I didn't notice anyone getting near us and I was knocked out by one of the metal benders."

Ming hua looked away from him. "Why didn't you finish those kids off?"

"Hey Bolin isn't that bad, and he was the only other person I met that could lava bend." Ghazan began. "But when I saw his brother return, I knew something had happened to you, we had already lost P'li and I didn't want to lose too."

Ming hua glared at him. "So you threw the fight to come save me, well why couldn't you have grabbed me and have gotten out of there, we wouldn't be in this mess. Now we're going to lose our bending." She swallowed. "And all that work I had to putting into learning it only to be nearly killed by that kid."

"Like I said, I didn't think that Zaheer was going to lose." Ghazan reminded. "And you didn't know that kid could lightning bend."

"It doesn't matter." She mumbled. "Zaheer lost to the avatar in the avatar state, P'li lost to one of the best metal benders in the world, you threw your fight to play the hero and I lost to a teenager, a rookie cop no less."

"Ming hua, he got lucky." Ghazan said. "Bringing the avatar into the avatar state was a bad idea without P'li there. Zaheer wanted to go through with it anyway and that is why we lost." Ghazan paused.

She had thought about asking if he had found anyway for them to escape, but then she remembered that they were being monitored.

"Did you hear what happened to P'li?" Ming hua finally asked.

Ghazan looked down. "Yes Bolin told me. I had to convince him too because he figured I'd be better off not knowing, but I know."

They were both quiet.

"It was quick right?" Ming hua half asked half stated.

"I think so. I don't think she even knew what happened." Ghazan said. "At least I hope not. I wonder if she got a burial."

They were both quiet. Ming hua wondered that if they were ever allowed out, if they could go to the place where she had died and put up a small memorial.

Finally Ming hua asked, "So which two out of three were correct?"

Ghazan's eyes widened. "Which two do you think?"

"I'm not in the mood for any games, just tell me." Ming hua ordered rolling her eyes.

Ghazan breathed. "I completely threw that fight because I didn't want to lose you; there is no one else I would have done that for."

Ming hua felt her face redden. She looked down and then looked back at him. "It's not because I was your only other option?" Thirteen years was a long time to go without human contact, Zaheer and P'li had each other to hold, so both of them were out and it wasn't like it was safe to find another person.

"I've liked you for a long time." Ghazan responded. "I thought about you often in that prison, it was one of the few ways I kept myself from losing my mind. I wondered where you were being kept, if you were still alive, and how you were being treated."

Ming hua's face only got redder. She wasn't quite sure how to respond to any of it. "Why didn't you tell me any of this along time ago! You were always spending the night with other women. Why not me?"

"Those were only one night stands. Those are easy. I wanted something more with you." Ghazan explained. "We worked well together, we got along, I liked being around you, but I couldn't tell if you wanted a relationship with anyone. I didn't want to make things uncomfortable between us and I especially didn't want to make you uncomfortable. I gave you a few hints but you didn't react well to them so I decided to not bother you with anymore."

"I'm not used to people liking me like that." Ming hua said. "I wasn't sure if that is what you were doing!"

Ghazan looked at her. "So you too?"

Ming hua nodded.

Ghazan sighed, "Well there is not much we can do about this in prison. I doubt that they would ever let us share a cell."

"They absolutely wouldn't." Ming hua rolled her eyes wondering why that thought would ever cross his mind.

Their time was soon up and they were escorted back to their cells. One of Ming hua's escort looked at her smiling.

"Well that was really sweet. I knew there was more to you than anger and bitterness."

Ming hua's eyes widened and she blushed. She had forgotten that their conversation had been monitored.

"Just forget everything you heard."

* * *

AN: I was trying not to make the Mingzan moment cheesy. I'll probably read that last part in a few days or weeks and be completely mortified and rewrite it. Romance is not my strong point. I wasn't sure if the characters were too upfront.

So in this chapter, I was trying to not write Su as a bitch but not perfect either. I also wanted to make Ming a little vulnerable but not a complete victim, with a side of her ruthlessness, though trying to act in a way that wouldn't piss off Suyin too much. (Though she kind of did)

And seriously, trying to figure out how to even write the White Lotus prison situation. Realistically, these characters would have severe psychological problems from being in those prisons. I also don't want this to be a big angst fest, but after being in those prison for thirteen years, believing that one of your friends was killed, and failing again, and to be thrown back into a prison, it would be a bit unbelievable if there wasn't a little.

Also trying to figure out how to incorporate some backstories and how far in depth to go and gotta jail break those two soon.


	5. Chapter 5

AN: This chapter is for the Mingzan shippers. And I realized that I was writing Ming-Hua's name wrong. The Tumblr tag has it as Ming hua so now I'll be going back to previous chapters and changing it.

* * *

The day came that Ming-Hua was finally allowed to go outside into the prison yard. She knew that she would have escorts, but she was surprised when four metal clan soldiers approached her cell. She vaguely recognized the leader of the group.

"Kuvira, are you sure this is a good idea?" One of the soldiers asked. "She'll be a lot of trouble if she finds any water."

"It's what they want and they figured that it would be best if they had us take her outside. They figured we could handle her." The woman, now known as Kuvira replied. Kuvira then looked at Ming-Hua. "If you try _anything _know that you will be brought back inside, and it won't be pleasant for you."

"Yes I know!" Ming-Hua didn't even look at her. Kuvira was probably nearly a decade younger than her.

Kuvira frowned. "If you give me attitude you can stay in here."

Ming-Hua wanted to say something further but she did want to go out so she kept quiet.

"Here are the rules;" Kuvira began. "No going near the bathrooms. If it starts to rain, we will bring you back inside immediately and it will not be fun for you. All water fountains have been turned off, so don't even bother trying. If you do find a source of water, we will not hesitate to use force to restrain you. Understood?"

Ming-Hua nodded.

"You'll get to go out once a week for an hour." Kuvira continued. "If your behavior is good you may get more time outside."

"Good." Now let's go.

The other three soldiers did not say anything to her. They walked with two in front and two behind her. The guard in front, who was not Kuvira, would glance back at her every so often with the same stern look on her face.

"Last time I saw you, I didn't think you were going to make it in here." Kuvira said as they neared the exit. "I thought I was going to have to carry you to your cell."

So that's where Ming-Hua had recognized her. She remained quiet. She did not want to talk to Kuvira.

The prison yard was divided into three sections. A women's section, a men's section, and in between, a co-ed section. The soldiers had backed off some when they had gotten outside, letting her choose where she wanted to go. The Ming-Hua headed straight to the co-ed section looking for Ghazan. Another prisoner, a woman much taller than her, shoved her with her elbow.

"Hey!" Ming-Hua yelled and was about to run at the woman when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Do you want to go back in?" Kuvira said firmly.

"But she just-"Ming-Hua began but was interrupted.

"We're not going to worry about her." Kuvira stated. "And what were you thinking anyway? She's much bigger than you."

"I could have taken her." Ming-Hua mumbled and entered the co-ed section. She spotted Ghazan almost immediately and walked quickly over to him. Ming-Hua looked to see where her escorts were, and surprised to see that they were giving more space than she expected. They hung back about twenty feet.

She finally looked at Ghazan, feeling a little nervous. After their talk a few days ago, this meeting felt awkward. Things were now different.

"Hey." He said.

"Hey." She repeated.

"You're looking better." Ghazan commented eyeing her.

Ming-Hua frowned. "You need to work on your compliments." She responded. She knew exactly what he meant. She was no longer dehydrated and she had gained a little bit of weight. It probably helped that she wasn't constantly on the move and that she wasn't sharing whatever food they could find between four people. But she was disappointed that was the first thing Ghazan had said to her.

Ghazan suddenly looked a little worried. "No, I meant, you don't look as sick as you did after we got you out of the prison…"

"Like I said, you need to work on your compliments." Ming-Hua looked away from him.

"You're pretty?"

"Too late."

The two went and sat with their backs against the prison wall. They were as far away from both sets of their escorts as was allowed. Ming-Hua inched in close to Ghazan to see if their escorts would allow it, and of course, because she wanted to.

"So how have you been?" Ghazan quickly changed the subject.

"Fine." She said. "But I think they hate me." Ming-Hua looked at the metal clan soldiers.

"What did you do to make them hate you?" Ghazan asked raising his eyebrows.

"Nothing much. They were at the air temple the day we got caught." Ming-Hua explained. "I don't think they're over it."

"You have their soldiers watching you? You should be honored. I only have regular prison guards. They must think you're dangerous." Ghazan looked towards her escorts.

"Yeah well I have no idea what they think I'm going to do." Ming-Hua frowned. "There is absolutely no water out here and what little moisture I could pull out of the air won't do much."

Ming-Hua looked around to see what the other prisoners were doing. Some were playing games, others were talking, there were prisoners that were obviously lovers and were getting very cozy with each other, and a few others just sat and looked bored. She then looked at the layout of yard. The yard was in the center of the prison. It would be very difficult to make an escape without water or earthbending. She looked for any possible routes of escape, anything to climb over, any overlooked pathways that would lead out and there were none. If they wanted to break out they would have to run through the building where they would come across several guards.

"So about the other day…" Ghazan began.

"I forgot they were listening to us!" Ming-Hua cut him off and cringed as she remembered that sappy little love confession. "Now some of the guards think it is cute. We're hardened criminals! Our relationship isn't cute! I should have waited until now to ask you about that two out of three."

"We're in a relationship now?"

"What?" Ming-Hua's eyes widened.

"I'm just kidding." Ghazan laughed when he had gotten the reaction he wanted from her.

"Really!" Ming-Hua was now angry. "I've been stuck in that jail cell for over a month; I'm not in the mood for that!"

"Alright I'm sorry." Ghazan apologized. "So about this relationship..."

"I don't know, how are we even supposed to have one in here?" Ming-Hua groaned. "I have four soldiers watching me, you have four guards watching you. All we can do is… talk."

"Well, they said that after we lose our bending, we might eventually be let out. We just can't leave the city." Ghazan informed though he didn't look at all happy with that option.

Ming-Hua hadn't heard any of this. "Then what? What do we do? What am I supposed to do? Are we going to have a place to live? We spent years of our life sitting in small prison cells, what can we do?" She looked around the prison yard once again to see if she had missed any possible escape routes.

"I don't know what we would do." Ghazan said after thinking for a moment. Then he whispered, "I've tried to find a way out of here, but it doesn't look like it's going to be possible. And if we did get out, we would be running from the White Lotus for the rest of our lives, and possibly the avatar."

Ming-Hua sighed. Living without her bending just sounded terrible. Alternatively, if they had found a way to break out of prison, running from the White Lotus for the rest of their lives also sounded awful, but it was preferable to losing her water bending.

"It is going to be hard for me to lose my earth bending, but I can't imagine how this is for you, considering that you use your waterbending to make your arms." Ghazan sympathized. He wrapped his arm around her and she leaned into him.

"It's not just that." Ming-Hua said sadly. "If I wanted to be taken seriously I couldn't be just okay, or good, or even great, I had to be one of the best. Otherwise, everyone would just say how adorable it was that I could waterbend, or that what I was doing was dangerous to myself and others or even that I could have been one of the best but this holds me back." She shrugged her shoulders. "So I had to work hard and I had to teach myself. And it's all going to go to waste."

"I didn't realize." Ghazan held her tighter. "It sounds like the Avatar is going to be sick for a long while, maybe we'll have enough time to find a way out of here, or at least convince them to let us keep our bending."

"I highly doubt that they are going to let us keep our bending." Ming-Hua rolled her eyes. "They don't trust us to come out here on our own."

"Wow what did she do to get locked in here?" Ming-Hua overheard another prisoner. She turned to see him looking at her.

She straightened herself up and quickly responded. "I tried to kill the avatar and I was with the man who killed the earth queen. I also took down several of the Dai Lee." The prisoner, and the group he was with, just looked as though they weren't sure that they should believe her.

Her time outside was almost up. Ghazan gave her a quick hug and she laid her head against him, the only way she could return it. Then she pulled away and stood up.

"Is that all I get?" He asked looking a little disappointed.

Ming-Hua looked back at the soldiers to see that they were walking towards her. She whispered. "If you find a way to get us out of here, you'll get more."

* * *

Far from Zaofu, where the city could only be seen in the distance, two people stood. One towered over the other and burn scars all over her face, the worst being on the left side. Her left eye had a cloth bandage over it. On her forehead was what remained of a tattoo.

"But they're being treated okay?" The woman asked.

"Compared to their last prisons, yes. " The smaller figure, a woman said. "Are you going to break them out?"

"I can't walk through that city without being noticed. Last time my friends and I were there it ended in disaster." The woman said. "I need to find Zaheer first."

"That is going to be impossible." The shorter woman said shaking her head. "He's an airbender, they probably have hidden far underground."

"I know," the tall woman responded. "But he'd find a way to get them out."

"You know, P'li, you still don't look well, you need to rest."

"I'm fine." P'li insisted.

* * *

AN: Yes I brought P'li back. I figured she's good enough of a firebender that she could have controlled that explosion. I wanted to give her a different ending and don't worry she's not going to be completely okay from nearly blowing up her head. (Though it was actually her entire body there was no headless corpse left behind.)


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Notes:**

Sorry it took so long for an update! Life got very busy at the beginning of the year.

Okay, this chapter goes into P'li past and there is mention of abuse. I didn't make any of it explicit but it is there. Honestly this could be its own fanfic. Most of the events are summarized or this chapter would be extremely long. Maybe one day I'll expand on it. A lot of this was to figure out P'li's character because she didn't get too many lines in the show.

If the format is too confusing or annoying, just let me know and I'll do it another way.

* * *

When she woke up, the first thing that she noticed was the pain in her face. It was so intense that if it hadn't been for all the hell she went through under the warlord, she'd be screaming. Crying, whining, and screaming were always returned with a beating so one of the first things she had taught herself years ago was not to give any indication that she was in pain.

The last thing she remembered was that she was about to blast one of the metal benders and then everything went dark. Had she not trained herself to stop a combustion blast at a moment's notice, she would have died. She wasn't able to stop it completely and the force of what little did go off was enough to knock her unconscious and burn a good portion of her forehead.

She sat up and slowly pushed off the metal that encased her head. Her eyes burned from either sweat or blood and she could barely see. She felt her face flushing and her head felt like it was about to split open. The cool breeze made things all the worse.

"Zaheer?" She called out. There was no answer. "Zaheer?" She called again a little louder this time. Her voice was raspy and her breathing was heavy. Still no one came. She listened for anyone else, but all she heard was the sound of the wind. As far as she knew, she was alone.

"Ming-hua? Ghazan?" She called out for her two other friends. Her heart was starting to race.

P'li remembered the two metal benders she had fought and then realized that Zaheer may not have been able to take them both. But Ming-hua and Ghazan were nearby and would have given him back up. The two could take both the metal benders together as well as any other metal clan soldiers. Though she couldn't understand why they would leave her there.

Then it hit her, they probably thought that she had been killed. P'li had never been in that situation and Zaheer, Ming-hua, and Ghazan probably did not realize just how fast her reflexes were. She only figured that they had quickly gone to deal with the avatar and would return later to deal with her body.

Hours seemed to pass and what little light she could see was dimming. They should have been back a long time ago. She couldn't imagine that they wouldn't even give her a burial, at least Ming-hua and Ghazan would if Zaheer couldn't bear to return to where she had fallen. She started to fear for the worst and made the decision to go to the shrine where they had planned to take the avatar.

Her whole body hurt as she stood up. Lucky for her, neither of her legs were broken. She had to breathe deeply and block out the excruciating pain that ran through her body, another technique she had learned when she was held captive. That asshole would never let her stop walking, no matter how injured she was. Any attempt to give up on her part with met with a beating and a threat to her own home village.

When she reached the shrine it was as she suspected. The entrance was collapsed and there was no one to be found. Still believing that the others wouldn't leave her body, she could only conclude that they had lost. Now she had to find out if they had been killed or taken back to prison.

She had another big problem. Her injuries could still kill her, if she didn't starve to death first. She had to find a village and as far as she knew, the nearest would be miles away. Her vision and her injuries were going to make it all the more difficult. In order to distract herself, she thought of Zaheer.

* * *

_Past_

She was chained up in her little cell. Iron cuffs were around her wrists and ankles and a metal plate was chained around her forehead blocking the tattoo they had given her. There were only few instances where she was brought out of her cell; when her combustion bending was needed, and anytime her captor felt the need to remind her who she belonged too.

There were days where they had forgotten to bring her food and water. There were always two guards in front of her cell, and they would only go to find her food if it had been longer than two days since she had been fed. Everyone knew what the consequences would be had she died.

She was eight years old when he had found and taken her from her home. The last memory that P'li had of her family was her mother putting her younger siblings to bed and she herself turning in for the night. That night she was awoken suddenly by being dragged out of bed and shoved into a vehicle. The next day, they demanded that she show them her firebending, and after she had made small flame, they threw her into a cell.

Although she was not the only person he had found that had shown signs of being a combustion bender, she was the only one who had survived the training. Calling it training was a bit odd as no one actually knew how it worked. Those that they had suspected capable of combustion bending were forced to figure out the technique themselves during training sessions. Anyone that outright refused was killed in front of the others as a warning.

Anyone else that had managed to successfully combustion bend was killed on their first attempt. Watching where the others had failed, she concentrated on aiming the blast far away from her. She was still hurt on her first successful attempt but she had done it and the soldiers were quite pleased. After that, she was put in charge of training the others to be combustion benders. That was until, she had been close to being caught in another captives blast and after that she was to be nowhere near anyone else training.

In the early years as his prisoner, she spent most of her time in her cell doing her best to take care of the other terrified children that had showed promise. Some adults were taken too, but they were kept in a separate room. She had grown close to many of the children and she watched a few die by their own blast. Others never return from their training session. A few had tried to grab on to her as they were dragged from the cell. One even managed to dig deep enough into her arm that it left a scar.

When she had gotten her technique down, the Warlord was more than thrilled. He took quite a bit of pride in having something that no one else had. He did have some fear of her. Any time she was in his presence, the metal plate covered her head and her hands were bound together behind her, instead of in the front as they were in her cell. If they were out taking a village, another warlord's territory, or assassinating someone and her plate had to be removed, a chain was put around her neck and two other soldiers held her in such a way that she would never face him. There were times he yanked her around to show her off to others, especially if she had acted in any way defiant. Other times he'd refer to her as one of his brides.

She remembered his threats which made her cooperate.

"_You know what happens if you don't cooperate. Your entire village, your parents, your brothers and sisters, your friends, I'll kill every last one of them."_

With her, destroying armies was easy. She could take out several soldiers at a time. At times, they would destroy entire towns that had a huge military presence and she never knew how many innocents had been caught in the crossfire. She hated going to war more than anything but his threat scared her more than anything.

He had tried to convince her that taking over that area of the Earth Kingdom would be for the best for everyone. The warring would stop; the people would have a constant leader, and that the area may even be able to become independent from the Earth Kingdom monarchy. It was a known fact that the area was of no concern to the Queen. It had once been a Fire Nation colony and many of the citizens were of Fire Nation heritage.

Many times she thought about killing herself to end it all. A combustion blast with the plate over her head would end everything in an instant. But she knew doing so would only lead to her family's deaths. They were safe as long as she worked for him and that would end if she had died. She had tough about taking him along with her but then would remember that his second in command was far more vicious and it would be far worse for anyone if he were in charge.

She had heard stories of the Avatar as a child and would at times imagine him coming and getting her out of there. She was sixteen years old now and no longer expected anyone to come for her.

That night, while trying to fall asleep, she heard a panicked voice approaching her cell.

"Get P'li!" a soldier yelled. "And quickly! They've already gotten in!"

Her cell door was open and a soldier she had known all too well started to enter but not before being struck hard on the head and knocked to the ground. The other two outside were also easily taken down. Someone only a few years older than her stood at the entrance. There was a look of confusion on his face as soon as he saw her but he quickly ran to her side.

"Hey, are you okay? How long have your been here?" He asked quickly.

P'li ignored his questions finally getting her chance to escape. "Get these chains off of me and I'll help you kill that asshole." She looked one of the unconscious guards. "They should be on him."

The newcomer quickly searched for the keys and brought them back to her.

"I didn't expect to find a person in here." He said as he unlocked her chains. "We heard they had a very powerful weapon."

"They do and it's me." P'li responded as she pulled off the metal plate from her head and stood her full height. As if on cue, another soldier came into view and stood in the doorway to her cell.

"Um…" He began and started to shrink back.

P'li didn't give him any time to talk. She blasted him so quickly he barely had time to react.

Her rescuer just stood with his eyes wide and was slightly trembling. She wasn't sure if it was her height or her combustion bending that had made him nervous.

P'li looked at him. She had no idea why he and whoever he was with were searching the place for a weapon and for all we knew they were trying to take it for themselves. It would be too dangerous to try to take the place on her own especially with several people who knew her weaknesses. She might as well make him useful. "Let's go, keep them off of me."

"Okay…" He said nervously. "I'm Zaheer by the way."

"P'li." P'li introduced herself not quite caring who he was. She was confident that she could take him if he had tried to harm her in anyway.

She had no regrets in killing any of her captors. A few earthbending soldiers had tried to hit her in the forehead but Zaheer managed to block anything. He also took down anyone that got too close to her. She was quite impressed with his skill.

When she finally reached the room where the Warlord was, she only delighted to see his face go pale once he had noticed her. He opened his mouth to speak but never got the chance. P'li blasted and killed him instantly. After it was over, she couldn't help but be a little disappointed at how easy he had gone down. There was no suffering, just an instant death.

* * *

The army had been defeated quickly thanks to P'li. What could have been a battle that lasted for days ended in only a few hours.

Zaheer had brought her back to the group that had he had arrived with. P'li had no time for them. She half listened to their conversation and all sounded way too zealous about a cause that they supported. She also did not trust any of them and the more they talked about their cause, the more worried she became.

"So what exactly do you want to do P'li?" An older man finally asked her.

"I just want to go back to my village." P'li said. "She gave the name of her village and did her best to give the location using only the few land marks that she remembered.

Everyone just looked at each other with uncomfortable glances.

"Um P'li…" Zaheer began his voice very gentle. "That place is gone. It was destroyed about eight years ago."

P'li felt her insides go cold and she quickly did the math. "No…it's still there." She remembered the threats at her home over the years. Her eyes then narrowed. "You're thinking of the wrong place!"

She stood up finished with them. "I need to go." She turned and walked away.

She barely heard Zaheer say that he was going to go with her.

Zaheer quickly caught up with P'li. It was dark but she didn't care. All she wanted was to get home to her family. She couldn't help but wonder what they would they would they would think of her after all she had done. She also worried that Zaheer may have been correct but she did her best not to think of that.

They walked for hours P'li never stopping. Zaheer tried to make small talk but P'li would only give very short answers. She actually needed him with her because she had no idea where she was going. Zaheer had a map of the area and knew how to read it.

When she knew that they were close, she ran ahead of Zaheer desperately wanting to get home. She would finally be done going to war, done killing others, and no longer be a prisoner. It was now early in the morning and any fatigue she had was gone. She ran up a hill as fast as she could were home would be.

P'li stopped dead as she reached the top. All that was left of the village were ruins. Many of the houses had been burnt down years ago and there was no sign that anyone had been there in years. She suddenly felt numb. All those years chained up she often wondered what her family was doing. At times, she'd make up her own scenarios in her head. Most of her cooperation over the years was for the safety of her family and she refused to believe that it was all for nothing.

Zaheer caught up to her and looked at the ruins. "I'm really sorry."

"No…" P'li said, her voice quiet. "Maybe they left…"

Zaheer looked down. "I heard that everyone here was killed… It would have been very difficult for anyone to have escaped."

"You mean all that time…" P'li voice was barely above a whisper… "Damn it!" She kicked the ground and her eyes welled up with tears.

Zaheer moved closer and started to put his hand on her shoulder.

"DO NOT TOUCH ME!" She pushed him away so hard that he nearly lost balance.

* * *

_Present_

P'li must have been walking for days before she wondered into village. She slept little and drank whatever water she could find. One time she tried to douse her face with water, but that only caused excruciating pain.

There were times that she just wanted to lay down and give up. The thought of her friends possibly being back in their prisons was enough convince her to keep going. She had to continue on for them.

Luckily upon entering a village, someone had rushed to her side and guided her to a building. A woman she was taken to claimed to be a healer.

"What happened to you?" the healer asked already getting to work.

"I was in an accident." P'li said purposely being vague. The last thing she needed was for anyone to have any idea who she was. "I don't remember what happened."

"You're lucky you made it here." The healer said. "On top of that burn you also have a head injury as well as a few broken ribs."

The healer could only save one of her eyes, and did manage to restore her other eye to full vision. When the healing was complete P'li requested a mirror, wondering how bad the damage was. There was a large burn mark that covered her forehead and extended down to her right ear. She remembered. She vaguely remembered turning her head when she had realized it had been covered.

The healer told her she would need surgery if she ever wanted the scaring to disappear and that if she had the money, that it would be best if she saw a neurologist. She also noted that she had significant hearing loss in her right ear.

* * *

_Past _

P'li sat away from everyone with her head buried into her knees. Zaheer had invited her to go back with him. She wanted to refuse but she had nowhere else to go and she doubted that she could survive on her own. Now she had to hope that they didn't intend on making her their prisoner.

A few days had passed since she had been rescued. In that time she had washed up, slept on something other than steel, and had a full meal, though she mostly just picked at it.

They were far away from the nearest town and slept in tents. She was given her own but was too nervous to really sleep. Her nights were restless and she often woke up suddenly and would check to make sure she was the only one in her tent.

The only person she talked to was Zaheer. He was the only one there close to her age and even her conversations with him were short. He would bring her food, ask her how she was doing, and would try to invite her to sit with everyone else.

P'li layed her head down on its side. She had long stopped crying for the day and could only imagine that her eyes were blood shot and puffy. She then heard Zaheer excuse himself from his group and came and sat next to her.

"Are you doing okay?" He asked checking in on her. She saw him start to reach for her, but then put his hand down.

"My family is dead, what do you think?" She was beyond emotionally exhausted.

"I'm sorry." He apologized for what seemed to be the hundredth time since they had met.

"Well, at least they'll never have to know all the things that I did over the years." P'li voice cracked. Then she felt bad for even having that thought. Her family would certainly be better off alive.

Zaheer didn't say anything. He just sat with her. It was strangely comforting.

"So what do you plan to do?" Zaheer finally asked.

"I don't know, I really have nowhere to go." P'li responded.

"You can always stay with us." Zaheer offered. "You'd be very valuable."

"I don't know." P'li said cringing a bit. This was exactly what she didn't want. "Why were they even looking for a weapon?"

Zaheer straightened himself up. "We heard that one of the warlords had a very powerful weapon and the Red Lotus wanted to get it away from him in case the Earth Queen ever got word of it." He paused. "And they also didn't want a war mongerer having deadly weapon."

"That's right there are more of them." P'li said ignoring the second half of his explanation.

"Yeah, this entire area of the Earth Kingdom is overrun by them." Zaheer explained. "This is one of the most dangerous areas of the world to live in."

P'li suddenly looked up her eyes wide. "I can get rid of them."

"What?" Zaheer blinked.

"It will be easy for me, and I should do it." P'li said getting up and remembering how many people had died from her attacks alone.

"Wait right now?" Zaheer stood up.

"Yes, I need too." P'li said without even turning to look at him. "I'm sorry but I don't think I'm right for your group."

"Hey you could get killed! You can't go alone."

P'li sighed. She was well aware of that and really didn't care. If she could take out one or two before ultimately going down, that'd be enough.

"Let me go with you." Zaheer finally said. "I think I can help."

* * *

_Present_

She estimated that she had been unconscious for about two days on that peak. That would explain why there had been no signs of her friends or enemies; they had all been long gone.

Days after being healed, she moved on, and traveled to a more populated city. The healer urged her to stay put for a few more days but P'li refused. The longer she spent resting the longer her friends have to sit in their prisons… that is, if they were even still alive.

The village she was in had been completely clueless of the events that had happened. She only vaguely alluded to them but they knew nearly nothing about the current avatar except that she was a girl from the Southern Water Tribe.

After about a day of traveling, she entered a fairly large town and after asking around, she learned that the Avatar was still alive and that her friends were in fact back in prison. She was both relieved and angry. Relieved that Zaheer, Ming-hua and Ghazan, were all still alive but angry at where they had gone.

* * *

_Past_

A about a year after meeting, P'li and Zaheer had taken down two warlords and one corrupt mayor. It often took weeks to find out who was in charge of a certain territory and then even longer to figure out their chain of command. One of the Warlords had their second and third in completely different locations than him.

The second warlord that they had taken down was especially vicious. They'd travel through villages under his control and dead bodies would litter the streets. Parents mourned their children, and young newly orphaned children would search for their parents. Not to mention those that were homeless and starving.

No one else from the Red Lotus had come with them. They had no problem with her and Zaheer leaving but they wanted to focus on other things. Later, Zaheer had said that they probably doubted that they would even survive.

She liked having Zaheer with her. He gave her the space that she wanted and was there for her when she needed him. He handled every social situation. The few times she tried ask for information from anyone she either scared the person or made them extremely uncomfortable. So she left that to Zaheer.

Zaheer liked to talk about air nomad culture and various air bending masters that he knew of. P'li couldn't help but admire his enthusiasm for the subject, even though it wasn't something that she was personally interested in. She didn't have much to say about herself that she was comfortable sharing. So she and Zaheer mostly talked about where they were headed next and their next strategy. Long ago, Zaheer had suggested that stand at max distance when taking down a leader. That may have seemed obvious, but she had imagined herself running in and taking out as many soldiers as she could before going down herself.

Zaheer had asked several questions about her combustion bending and her tattoo. He was fascinated with it as he knew that it covered her light chakra. She did her best to explain how it worked but would not go into any of the details of the training. Zaheer also told her that he only knew of one other combustion bender that lived during the Hundred Years War.

"Hold still, I'm not done." Zaheer said one day while wrapping her arm.

She had gotten her upper arm slashed. "I've had worse than this. Everything healed fine." She frowned

"Well you should take care of yourself." Zaheer said

"Why?"

Zaheer suddenly stopped. "P'li…"

"I don't get it." She interrupted him and changed the subject. "I've killed countless people, why did you come with me?"

"Come on, you had no choice." Zaheer replied and continued to wrap her hand. "And I've killed people too."

"Not the same, many of the people I killed were civilians." P'li pointed out. "And I might have had a choice, I could have put up with the punishment and I should have realized that he never intended to keep my home safe."

"You were a little kid; there is no way that you could have known or even would have thought that he was lying." Zaheer shook his head. "Besides, the situation wasn't much different from a military officer. Plenty of Fire Nation generals went home and lived out completely normal lives after the war, despite being responsible for the deaths of thousands."

P'li wasn't convinced. She wasn't sure what she had been thinking all those years, killing people in exchange for her family's lives. Not to mention that her family had been dead the whole time.

"So why did you even agree to come with me?"

"I wasn't sure if you were going to go through with all of this. If you changed your mind, I could have helped you find somewhere to go." Zaheer began. "And either way I didn't want you out there with no one."

* * *

_Present _

Zaheer's cell was empty. P'li was almost certain that they wouldn't put him back there but she had to check. When she saw that there were no guards, she was almost certain that he wasn't there. She felt the need to check his cell anyway because she wouldn't put it past the White Lotus to throw him in and let him starve to death. It nearly made her sick to think about how they could possibly keep an airbender locked up. But Zaheer wasn't there and she immediately moved on.

P'li was surprised that Ming-hua and Ghazan's cells were also empty. The boat where Ghazan's cell was kept was docked and there was no one to be found at Ming-hua's prison. She was both relieved and frustrated. Relieved because her friends were not put back into those torture cells, and frustrated because now she had no idea where they were. The thought also crossed her mind that they may have been put in much worse prisons.

* * *

_Past_

They had now known each other for two years and had grown closer. They started holding hands, usually only in private when they were discussing their next move. The first time they ever did hold hands was when P'li was over eager to get food and grabbed Zaheer's hand to pull him along. She was a little embarrassed when she realized that she still had it when they stood in front of a food stand. Zaheer just smiled at her.

They had come across many things that had disturbed them, mostly other people that were victims of the violence that was happening in the area. The two would talk for hours about what was bothering them and P'li once found herself holding Zaheer and letting him rest his head against her.

"How many do you think we saved?" P'li once asked.

"I honestly don't know." Zaheer responded. "Maybe at least a hundred?"

P'li wanted to be closer to him. She enjoyed watching other couples out and about especially when they looked happy together. She wanted that with Zaheer. Only problem, she had no idea how to initiate that.

"I'll be heading out soon." Zaheer announced grabbing his stuff. They were staying at an inn for the night and Zaheer wanted to go out and talk to the townspeople. P'li had stayed behind the last few time because last time they were out Zaheer had gotten into a long philosophical debate with someone.

P'li looked at him and she felt her heart rate rise. "You know… maybe you could stay here tonight." She then broke eye contact.

"Sure, any reason?"

"Well, we could, you know… just spend some time together." She felt her face getting red.

"Sure we can do that." Zaheer said. "What should we do?"

P'li was annoyed that wasn't taking the hint. This would be so much easier if he had been the one to ask her. Surly some dead air nomad had some words of wisdom on this matter.

"Well we could… hang out… just the two of us?"

Zaheer blinked. "Are you asking me out on a date?"

"Um yeah… but we don't have too! I just thought that since we've been together for so long that we could… I don't know-"

"I'd love to P'li." Zaheer said, obviously noticing how flustered she was getting. "I honestly didn't know that you were interested."

She felt a little more at ease, but still wishing that things had gone smoother. "Can we have the date here? We already talk to each other a lot, we can skip that."

"Um okay." Zaheer looked a little perplexed.

P'li wasn't exactly sure what she was supposed to do. She had seen people deep kissing; those were mostly people who had been reunited after their homes were destroyed.

First she tried to sit in his lap, just as she had seen other women do, but she was way too tall and her neck and back would hurt. So she slid off his and pulled him into hers.

At first, she pushed her mouth against his way too hard. He had to pull away from her. A few more attempts and she got the hang of it. Suddenly, feeling a little bolder, she pushed him down to his back and layed down on top of him. He wrapped his arms around her.

For a moment, it felt extremely comfortable. But then her vision went blurry and she found herself back in her cell, and someone forcing her to the ground. And then she was breathing fast and hard and her body broke out into a sweat.

"P'li are you okay?" Zaheer asked he had taken his hands off of her.

She pushed off of him and sat down, unable to catch her breath and feeling very afraid.

"I'm sorry!" she said quickly and jumped up and ran from him and out the door. She wanted to be away from him and alone.

She didn't run far from the inn, but when she stopped, she buried her face into her hands feeling horribly embarrassed. The night wasn't supposed to go that way. When P'li finally caught her breath, she started to pace around and tried to figure out what had happened.

After a while, she had hoped that Zaheer would come out and find her. The thought of going back inside and facing him only made her face redden again. She just wanted to curl up and disappear.

She started to get tired and decided to go back inside.. She walked slowly into their room with her head down and saw Zaheer sitting on the bed looking relieved.

"Hey are you okay?" He asked quickly. "I checked on you a few times but I was still worried."

P'li looked down not really processing most of what he said. "I'm sorry, I don't know what happened."

"It's okay." Zaheer responded. "You know, we don't to do any of that if it makes you uncomfortable."

P'li breathed, "No I wanted to, and I don't know I just got scared."

"Was it anything that I did?"

"No, I just saw myself back there… with him." P'li didn't want to say anything further.

She went and sat next to him. "He's been gone for two years and he's still ruining my life."

Zaheer put his hand near hers. "Can I?" he asked.

P'li grabbed his hand.

Their relationship moved much slower from that point. P'li initiated any physical contact and full control over what they did. She had another panic attack when she had tried to force herself to go further. This time she didn't run but sat off to the side and let it pass.

It wasn't only intimacy that caused her any stress. Over the past two years there were times when she would be doing something that she enjoyed and then would get a flash back. She would feel guilty and would stop whatever it was that she was doing and insist that they shift their attention to their next target.

A few days later Zaheer came home with a book for dealing with stress and trauma hoping that P'li could use it to help herself. She was a little nervous to take the book. Her parents had taught her to read at a young age, but the last time she had actually read anything longer than a sentence was several years ago. Reading the book was difficult, there was a lot of terminology that she was not familiar with. Still she did find some useful information.

As the book suggested, she tried to change the way she thought about the events and suggested that she tell herself that the events that bothered her were not her fault. As much as she tried, nothing could convince her otherwise. It only made her want to go out and find another warlord to take down.

Another technique suggested that she relive the event. She tried it once and it ended in disaster, only reminding her of the people that she killed, the children under her care that had died, and every act of violence committed against her that left her laying on the floor writhing in pain. Zaheer suggested that reliving the events may not be helpful because none of them had ideal endings.

What helped the most was just talking. She started to talk to Zaheer about her past, only giving out as much details as she felt comfortable.

She was soon able to get more intimate. Sometimes the intimacy ended with sex, other times they just cuddled if it was too much for her that day. The first time they had had sex, P'li treated it as a bit achievement, both because she managed to do it and because she enjoyed it.

* * *

One night, shortly after falling asleep, Zaheer suddenly burst into the room startling her awake.

"P'li!" He said completely out of breath.

"What is it?" She yawned, her heart still racing.

"We have to leave now!" Zaheer insisted.

"Why? What's wrong?"

"You're wanted."

"Wait what?"

"Avatar Aang, and Chief Sokka have gotten word of you, and they're coming." Zaheer quickly explained.

"Why? What did I ever do to them!" She was now wide awake and sitting up in the bed.

"Remember that other combustion bender that I mentioned? Well they fought against him during the Hundred Year's War. And now they've heard about you and destructive you are." Zaheer continued.

P'li grabbed her bed sheets as tight as she could, feeling her nails dig into her hand through them. "Why are they after me and not the people who are actually causing all the problems here!"

"Because as far as they're concerned, this is the Earth Queen's territory even if she doesn't give a damn about it! Hurry and get dressed!"

P'li reluctantly got her clothes on and she and Zaheer snuck out the back. They left as quietly as they could, hoping to not attract any attention. Zaheer explained that she was described to be a woman at least 6'5" and that she would not be hard to pick out.

"Where should we go now?" P'li asked once they were finally a good distance away.

"They'll be searching for you here," Zaheer began. "Maybe we should head to city and lay low for a while."

They found a port town, a place under strict rule of the queen. Soldiers stood on every street corner. Some were coercing young homeless women, offering them money and a place to stay for the night. Civilians did their best to not make any eye contact with them.

There were homeless people on every street, many begging for money. A few were lying on the ground and they weren't sure if they were sleeping or dead.

Rent in the town was cheap and they found a small place to live using money that they had looted over the past two years. It took a bit to get settled.

"What happened here?" P'li asked once they had finally gotten a chance to rest.

"It's the high taxes the queen puts on her people." Zaheer responded. "She lives a lavish lifestyle. The majority of her citizens are either starving or spend their entire days working in factories."

"So why doesn't the Avatar do anything about her?" P'li asked frowning. "He had no problem removing the Fire Lord.

Zaheer sighed. "Well, he was good friends with Queen Hou-ting's father and he would have known her when she was a child."

"How lucky of her." P'li rolled her eyes.

"She wouldn't go down without a fight anyway, and this Avatar doesn't care much for violence." Zaheer continued. "An uprising in the lower ring in the capital city broke out and Avatar Aang showed up at her request to handle it… and well… the people immediately stopped their revolution once they got word that the avatar was coming."

P'li groaned. "Why did he side with her?"

Zaheer shook his head. "When word got out that the avatar would be arriving, that was enough to convince most of the protesters to stop. Anyone who continued was arrested. And when Aang arrived, there was really nothing going on that her army couldn't handle so he never went to the lower ring. Instead he just visited with her."

"So what good is he then?" P'li asked.

"I think he just places too much trust in world leaders." Zaheer sighed. "He is close friends with Fire Lord Zuko and Chief Sokka is his brother in law."

"He's not the first Avatar to make mistakes." Zaheer continued. "Kyoshi started up the Dai Lee, and Roku failed to stop his friend from going on a world conquest."

"Why didn't anyone just stop them?" P'li frowned.

"Because they are unstoppable in the avatar state."

* * *

_Present_

P'li had to rest after she had left Ming-hua's former prison, the last one she had checked. Prior to her injuries, the trip wouldn't have been a big deal.

She had found another member of the Red Lotus who knew what had happened in the battle with the avatar. P'li couldn't believe that even with the poison that she had managed to survive.

The Red Lotus op had no idea where Zaheer, Ghazan, and Ming-hua were. She dreaded the thought of searching the entire world to find them. First she would contact other members to see if they knew anything. She wasn't sure what they were going to do after she had freed them. They were sure to be on the run for the rest of their lives.

She tried to think of possible locations her friends could be. Ming-hua's new prison could be in a desert. Zaheer… he couldn't be kept away from air that would kill him, she had no idea where to even think that he could be. Ghazan could be on another boat out on the ocean and if there were the case, it would be nearly impossible to find him without an exact location and the right instruments.

She sighed, remembering that she was lucky that the avatar hadn't gone avatar state as soon as she had heard that the airbenders weren't in the temple. Or else, she would also be in prison. She wouldn't have her injuries but she'd still be stuck this time with no hope of ever getting out.

P'li got up ready to move on. She couldn't leave her friends waiting any longer than necessary.

* * *

**Author's Notes**

I hope I didn't demonize Aang too much, though it is hard when writing from that POV. All he had heard about the combustion bender was that it was a young woman and that she had killed many people. He knew nothing of the circumstances. It's likely that things would have ended in disaster anyway because I don't see him and Sokka taking any chances with her.

With Hou-ting, Zaheer is right; Aang does trust world leaders a little too much. He didn't in any way crush a rebellion, but him visiting Hou-ting was enough to make citizens nervous.

I hate naming unnamed characters. I can never like a name and if an official name ever comes out, the fic would annoy the hell out of me. That's why the warlord is simply called the warlord. Plus I could never come up with a good name or if I did, it was already taken by another character.

I also wasn't sure where this warlord was supposed to be. I didn't think it could be in the Fire Nation because I can't see Zuko letting warlords run around. It had to be the Earth Kingdom. I looked at a map of the Avatar world and still couldn't figure out the best location.

I also hope that I did not give the impression that P'li was over her trauma just from reading the book. That's far from true and she has way to much that she can work through on her own. Honestly she needs a certified therapist and probably and adult. (And not someone who is barely an adult.) Unfortunately, given her circumstances, the book is probably the closest she'll get to actual therapy. But if any of that is problematic let me know.

I was a little uncomfortable when I first heard P'li's back story in the show. So I tried to not make her a complete victim. I also didn't what P'heer to come off creepy. At the start of the flashback, P'li is 16 and Zaheer is 17.

I'll go into the past a little bit more in future chapters.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: This is kind of a weird transition chapter.

* * *

P'li sat down in the bar stool feeling sore and exhausted. It had been a long day finding and contacting members of the Red Lotus to see if they had any information and her head was hurting. She still hadn't located Zaheer, Ming-hua, or Ghazan. However, someone did give her the name of another Red Lotus OP who may know something and she was planning to meet them tomorrow. She had to write everything about the meeting down. Lately she had been becoming forgetful. She would get up to go do something then almost immediately forget what it was that she was going to do and it horrified her each time it happened. If she could find just one of her friends, things would become much easier.

It was tempting to go to either the north or south pole and enter the spirit world through one of the portals. Zaheer was surly spending his imprisonment there and if she had found him he could tell her where he was being kept. But she was almost certain that both portals would be heavily guarded.

The bar tender grimaced when he saw her face. "What the hell happened to you?"

"Accident." P'li answered glancing away.

"So what do you want?"

"Something strong." P'li answered resting her arms on the bar top.

She felt the beverage tingle on her tongue and slightly burn the back of her throat. The place was mostly empty with only a few other customers. She paid no mind to those staring at her.

"Does anyone know what happened to the queen?" She heard a woman's voice ask.

"I don't think so." A man's voice answered. "All I know is that it was a group of revolutionaries. A very small group."

"Whoever it was, I can't thank them enough." The first voice was especially bitter. "I only wish they had gotten there sooner, my son died not long before. He got sick and we couldn't afford the medicine."

"I'm so sorry to hear that."

"Taxes were already too high and they were raised again. My brother and his friends tried to get the money back after the last collection, but they were stopped by none other than the avatar and her friend." The woman then sighed. "Even if he did get the money we would still have to choose between medicine and food."

The man looked at her sympathetically. "Well let's hope that whoever takes over isn't nearly as bad."

P'li then stood up having heard enough. Before she left, she turned to face the woman.

"The name man who took down Queen Hou-ting was Zaheer." She said and started to leave.

"Hey aren't you going to pay for your drink!" The bar tender called after her.

P'li stopped and then turned and set money on the bar top.

"Wait… you know what happened in the palace that day?" The woman asked.

P'li ignored her and kept walking. She couldn't risk anyone finding out that she was among the revolutionaries and she was sure that someone would figure that she knew too much if she had stuck around to explain what had happened.

* * *

Months had passed and Ghazan hadn't found a way out. He had a few suggestions but Ming-hua told him that they could not make any escape attempts unless they were sure that they could be 100% successful. Any failure would result in serious consequences; the best not being allowed outside and at worse, being taken by the White Lotus.

Ghazan socialized with other inmates at times. Ming-hua did a little but most of them just wanted to know why didn't have any arms. So she and Ghazan would make up their own stories about what had happened to her, each getting more extreme the last, never telling anyone that she was just simply born without them.

Inmates didn't say in the prison long. Most were not even Zaofu citizens but people passing through and attempting to raid the city. The average prison stay was about a month and with the increase in the amount of bandits in the area, the prison was becoming more active. Most of them had been unaware of how heavily guarded Zaofu was.

Bolin would visit them often. They were very disappointed when he later joined the military led by Kuvira with the intent to help unite the Earth Kingdom. They had learned that Kuvira was calling herself The Great Uniter and was basically taking over rule of the Earth Kingdom. They both predicted that the Earth Kingdom would turn it into a military state. They were also concerned with the military having a lavabender in their ranks. Ghazan did assure Ming-hua that he hadn't taught Bolin everything that he knew.

Months went by and their lives became routine. During their time together, they mostly reminisced about the past. They would talk a little about what they were going to do once they got out, but they had to be careful not to be overheard. Once they had gotten themselves out, they would then have to do the more difficult task of finding out where the White Lotus had Zaheer imprisoned.

"So where do you think they put him?" Ming-hua asked one day. She and Ghazan had been watching some of the other inmates when the thought crossed her mind.

"Underground." Ghazan answered, knowing exactly who she was referring to. "And probably in a metal cell. They're going to make sure that no one can get in there."

"Do you think he still thinks about her?" Ming-hua asked remembering the change in Zaheer after he had gained flight. How empty and cold he had become within less than a day.

"I hope so. After everything those two had been through I would hope that he wouldn't just throw it all away." Ghazan looked away from her as he spoke. "P'li doesn't deserve that."

The days became predictable. Prisoners came and went. On days that were overcast, Ming-hua was kept inside and she would sit and anxiously wait until the next time she could go out. One week, it had rained every day and sitting in her cell for those days was agonizing.

Ghazan once suggested that they find a more private place outside to get more intimate. Ming-hua promptly reminded him how close they were being watched and that she was not going to become an exhibitionist. They had seen some of the bolder inmates get very cozy with each other and they were always stopped by the guards before things went too far.

Anytime Ming-hua was back in her cell she'd eavesdrop on the guards waiting for them to talk about what was going on in the world. Ghazan would do the same and they knew that Kuvira had taken over much of the Earth Kingdom and that she had soldiers stationed in several towns and cities. This was going to make breaking out more complicated. Word would spread fast that they had escaped and they could never go to any place under Kuvira's control. Knowing where Zaofu was in relation to Republic City, they managed to work out a path that they would take when they eventually got out.

More months passed and they still hadn't found a way out. Zaofu's prison was just too secure. The prison staff was also very good at controlling how much water Ming-hua was given and if she even looked at the water fountains outside, the guards would approach her and demand to know what she was planning to do. It didn't look like they were ever going to get out. One day however, Kuvira's army arrived at the gates of Zaofu.

* * *

A/N: So basically, I needed time to pass. I didn't expect it to take seven chapters to get to this point. But I finally got here. Next chapter might be another flashback because I can't think of another place to put it, and I may post two chapters at once.


End file.
